Summary
The plannedDungeons & Dragonsmovie has been canceled, which is especially disappointing considering one movie with 91% on Rotten Tomatoes. Paramount+ had partnered with Hasbro, the owners of theDungeons & DragonsIP, to bring the tabletop role-playing game to life in an episodic format. It was planned to be part of Hasbro’s larger push to create media based on its IPs, such as the recentBarbiemovie and theupcomingTransformers Onemovie. Those plans have recently hit a major, and disappointing, setback.
Paramount+‘sDungeons & DragonsTV show was canceleddespite having received a series order, and development of the show has stalled. It is possible that the show could continue in a way with another production company, as Hasbro seems motivated to create a live-action show, but this still acts as a major setback for the franchise. Even if another company agrees to produce the show, it will likely be a long time from now, as Hasbro has several other projects in production. Even with those possibilities, the news of theDungeons & Dragonsshow’s cancelation is still very disheartening.
How One D&D Is Different From D&D 5e
With the upcoming release of One D&D, there is some confusion about what it is and how the new version will be different from fifth edition.
Dungeons & Dragons’ Live-Action TV Show Setback Is Hugely Disappointing
Dungeons & Dragonsis the most popular tabletop roleplaying game ever, and it has so much potential to be made into a successful show. There are so many fascinating parts of the game and its lore, from unique monsters and classes to thrilling adventures.Any one of those features would have been incredible to see in live-action, and theDungeons & Dragonsshow could have been a chance to highlight all the things that makeD&Dso great. Its cancelation is made even worse by the fact that there is already a very goodDungeons & Dragonsadaptation from 2023.
Dungeons & Dragons Already Got A Raw Deal With Honor Among Thieves
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieveswas one of the best movies of 2023, and it even garnered an impressiveRotten Tomatoesscore of 91%. According toBox Office Mojo, however,Honor Among Thievesonly earned $208 million at the global box office against a budget of $150 million, despite the positive reviews it received. When factoring in other costs, like marketing and distribution,Honor AmongThieveslikely didn’t turn a profit at the box office.Honor Among Thieveswas a great movie, and the fact that it was largely unsuccessful was just the first disappointment for the live-action franchise.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Cast
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves follows a cunning thief and a group of unlikely adventurers on a quest to recover a lost relic. The film details their epic heist, which takes a perilous turn as they encounter formidable adversaries, adding complexity to their mission.
There are severalreasonsHonor Among Thievesbombed at the box office, most of which were not the movie’s fault. Some outside factors that contributed toHonor Among Thieves' poor performance included its marketing, which was minimal and didn’t paint a great picture of what to expect from the film, and its release date, which put it up againstThe Super Mario Bros. Movie, a movie that dominated the box office.Honor Among Thievestruly had the odds stacked against it, which made its failure to turn a profit even more disappointing.
Why Dungeons & Dragons Is So Hard To Get Right In Live-Action
Dungeons & Dragonshas a massively diverse fan base. While that’s one of the game’s strengths, it also poses a big problem with trying to create a live-action adaptation of it. There are many hardcore fans who want a faithful, true to the game experience out of an adaptation.However, there are far more people who only have a moderate interest in it, as well as general audiences who know very little aboutDungeons & Dragons. Those competing audiences make it so that satisfying one would lose the other: creating a faithful game experience could alienate casual audiences, while making a more generic fantasy movie would disappoint dedicated fans.
The gameplay itself also makesDungeons & Dragonsdifficult to put to film. The average campaign can take many different directions, from whimsical, joking moments among friends to hugely dramatic final confrontations. A film can replicate that unique blend of tones, but it’s exceedingly difficult to do so. AD&Dcampaign also takes significantly longer than any show or movie, which would leave an adaptation with far less time to make its world and characters endearing to audiences.
The show also would have been a chance to address those issues and succeed where Honor Among Thieves couldn’t, which makes its cancelation even worse.
Those problems were a factor in whyHonor Among Thievesdidn’t succeed as much as it could have, and they likely contributed in some way to Paramount+’s decision to cancel theDungeons & Dragonsshow. The show also would have been a chance to address those issues and succeed whereHonor Among Thievescouldn’t, which makes its cancelation even worse. It’s now unclear when the next live-actionDungeons & Dragonsadaptation will be made, meaning it could be quite a while until the franchise gets another chance to capture the game’s magic.
Sources:Rotten Tomatoes,Box Office Mojo
Dungeons and Dragons
Dungeons and Dragons is a popular tabletop game originally invented in 1974 by Ernest Gary Gygax and David Arneson. The fantasy role-playing game brings together players for a campaign with various components, including abilities, races, character classes, monsters, and treasures. The game has drastically expanded since the ’70s, with numerous updated box sets and expansions.
